1. Attribution

2. Home learning
Annotate the two articles using green pen to highlight aspects of attribution theory

3. Home learning

4. Football Challenge

5. MOTD

6. ATTRIBUTION
“The perceived reasons for success or failure of an event or pattern of behaviour” (James et al 2009:186)

7. By the end of the lesson you will be able to answer the following questions:

8. Task difficulty Ability Effort Luck LOCUS OF CAUSALITY
Internal External
Task difficulty
Ability
Stable
STABILITY
Effort
Luck
Unstable

9. Connector
Watch the following videos and note the reasons for the issues they raised:
Fergie:
Arsene:

10. Key words Attribution theory Locus of causality Locus of stability
Locus of control
Self-serving bias
Controllability
Learned helplessness

11. Attribution
Individuals actively attach personal meaning to behaviour outcomes.
For example, if I win a game of table tennis, I might attribute the victory to my ability or the poor table or equipment
There are 4 main categories of attribution (Weiner, 1972)

12. Task difficulty Ability Effort Luck LOCUS OF CAUSALITY
Internal External
Task difficulty
Ability
Stable
STABILITY
Effort
Luck
Unstable

13. Locus of causality
This dimension classifies the outcome as internal or external.
Internal attributions come from within the participant.
Examples include effort, concentration, fitness, ability, motivation.
External attributions are anything external from the individual.
Examples include the weather, officials, opponents, luck.

14. Stability
This dimension relates to whether the cause of the outcome is consistent or will fluctuate.
Stable factors might be equipment, timing, ability, opponents’ ability (depending on competition).
Unstable factors might be effort, luck, officials, etc.

15. Weiner’s model with examples

16. Revised attribution theory (Weiner, 1985)
Controllability –
added dimension
This dimension assesses whether the outcome was under the personal control of the individual or under the control of other people.
For example, an athlete might run a personal best time, but still lose. Roger Black in the 1996 Olympics is an example – he new he couldn’t beat Michael Johnson and aimed to win silver

17. Task – How many attributions can you enter into the grid?
LOCUS OF CAUSALITY
Internal External
Stable
STABILITY
Unstable

18. Attribution, emotion, and performance (Biddle & Hill, 1992)
Winners attributed success to their effort, motivation, personality, and good form
Losers attributed their outcome to their lack of experience, opponent’s effort, and opponent’s ability
Winners were more satisfied, pleased, and contented than losers
Losers who rated winning as important reported higher ratings of negative feelings than losers where importance was lower

19. What did they attribute their reasons towards?
Fergie:
Arsene:

20. Exam tips
Be able to draw and interpret Weiner’s model and make sure it is labeled correctly
Describe practical examples to explain the attributions following a variety of results.
To maintain a performer’s motivation you can attribute loss or failure to any other factors other than internal stable factors

21. In groups of 2 or 3, consider the following issue...
You were victorious in one game and experienced defeat in another game
List the reasons for the outcome
Draw Weiner’s two dimensional model and place each of the named reasons into the different categories
Discuss your findings

22. Attribution retraining
Make notes from page 189

23. Learned helplessness
This term describes when a person expects to fail.
This expectation is based on previous experiences of failure.
They attribute failure to lack of ability (internal and stable).

24. Expecting to fail
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.
(Henry Ford)
The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when someone expects to fail, and consequently does.

25. How can we overcome learned-helplessness?
Guarantee some success.
Set short-term goals, that are somewhat challenging but that will be achieved relatively quickly.
Give positive reinforcement.
Give lots of encouragement.
While rewards can be used, the coach should focus on enhancing intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.
What are the 3 most effective strategies? Pg 191

26. Summary
Attribution is the process of identifying what caused an outcome.
How we attribute outcomes will influence our self-efficacy and motivation.
Sustained negative attribution could lead to low self-esteem and learned helplessness.
Failure should be attributed to external, unstable, or uncontrollable factors.
Success should be attributed to internal, stable, or controllable factors.

27. Exam questions 2006

28. Exam answers